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Terrific Toddler

Washington Boy, 3, Saves Mom, Brother in Same Week

Sept. 16, 2004 -- He's fearless and fast, and though he's just started preschool, he appears to have a bright future in emergency services.

Lucas Helland, 3, of Whidbey Island, Wash., saved his mother and younger brother from danger within the same week.

The first accident occurred when Lucas' mother used a chair as a stepstool, which turned out to be a mistake. "I stepped off and when I did, I stepped wrong and snapped my ankle," Carla Helland explained to ABC News affiliate KOMO in Seattle. "I threw my head backward and hit my head and I passed out."

Lucas grabbed his mom's cell phone, scrolled through her saved numbers and called his older sister, brother and father. He can't read, but he knows what their names look like. The toddler left each family member a message, and within minutes, his dad called home and got help.

KOMO asked Lucas if he was scared, and he said yes. But that didn't stop him from more heroic acts just five days later.

He and his little brother, 2-year-old Logan, were playing next to their father's truck when an electrical problem sparked a fire. When their mom spotted the smoke coming from the truck, she ran to help -- only to find Lucas already saving Logan.

"He, at that time, was still pulling out his brother, who was kind of screaming, 'Leave me alone! Leave me alone!' " Carla Helland recalled in the KOMO interview. "But he pulled him away from the truck."

There's not much left of the truck, but both boys are fine.

Like most heroes, Lucas takes no credit. "It got burned up," was all he said.

But his mother is proud of him for saving two family members within days. "I think he was put on this Earth for something," she said with a laugh, "and maybe this was it, I don't know."

[original article]

Posted by thinkum at September 16, 2004 09:31 PM